This invention relates to the diagnosis and/or monitoring of patients with an acute episode of an inflammatory disease or condition. In some embodiments the inflammatory disease or condition is systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The invention also provides means for predicting the onset of an acute episode of an inflammatory disease or condition, including SLE.
Monitoring disease activity is also problematic in caring for patients with inflammatory diseases or conditions. Chronic inflammatory diseases or conditions frequently progress in a series of flares, or periods of acute illness, followed by remissions. Over time, however, these flares can lead to irreversible organ damage. In order to minimize such damage, earlier and more accurate detection of disease flares would not only expedite appropriate treatment, but would reduce the frequency of unnecessary interventions. From an investigative standpoint, the ability to uniformly describe the “extent of inflammation” or activity of disease in individual organ systems or as a general measure is an invaluable research tool. Furthermore, a measure of disease activity can be used as a response variable in a therapeutic trial. Thus, there is a need for reliable methods to diagnose or predict the acute stage of inflammatory disease or condition, including SLE. The present invention meets these and other needs.